North American markets are poised to open mixed Thursday as oil prices rose above US$57 US a barrel. The high price of oil bodes ill for Wall Street, but should give a boost to Toronto energy stocks.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said national net worth reached $4.3 trillion by the end of the fourth quarter, or $132,500 per capita.

The government agency said growth in national net worth strengthened to 1.4% in the fourth quarter, from the 0.03% increase in the third quarter.

Separately, StatsCan said foreign investors continued to buy Canadian securities in January. Their investment of $1.8 billion consisted entirely of Canadian debt instruments as foreign holdings of Canadian stocks remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, Canadian investors divested a record $3.2 billion in foreign stocks in January. However, they continued to buy foreign bonds

South of the border, the U.S. Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 318,000, after seasonal adjustments, in the week that ended March 12. Economists expected claims to fall by 12,000.

In earnings news, Wall Street’s positive results continued, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley posting 20% and 17% increases in net income, respectively, for the fiscal first quarter.

Later today, the Ontario Securities Commission will release its report on the conclusion of the OSC’s probe into trading practices in mutual funds.

The probe resulted in settlements reached with five mutual fund managers that will see an unprecedented $205.6 million distributed to mutual fund investors who suffered harm from market timing activities.

On Wednesday, record high oil prices and a leap in the value of Research in Motion Ltd. shares offset sagging financial and mining shares to keep the Toronto Stock Exchange above water Wednesday. But the combination of rising crude and a dire profit outlook from the world’s biggest automaker pushed Wall Street to a triple-digit loss.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index was up only 3.28 points (0.03%) at 9,712.55, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index lost 7.26 points (0.37%) to 1,964.92.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 112.03 points (1.04%) to 10,633.07. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index slid 19.23 points (0.94%) at 2,015.75 and the S&P 500 index was off 9.68 points (0.81%) to 1188.07.

In Toronto, technology stocks jumped 3.81%, propelled by the shares of BlackBerry maker RIM, the most heavily weighted tech stock on the TSX. RIM shares surged $14.11 (17.43%) to $95.07 after the company settled a patent dispute with NTP Inc. of Virginia. Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM has agreed to pay $450 million US to the U.S. company. The dispute began in 2002 when NTP claimed that RIM infringed on 16 of its patents, including its radio communications technology.

The TSX energy sub-group added 1% as the price of crude jumped $1.41 to finish at US$56.46 a barrel in New York, after the Department of Energy released data showing domestic supplies of gasoline and heating oil fell sharply last week.